I recently added a pleco to my tank and it died, so i bought another one and it died within hours, why??

Answer 1

HOURS....
Ammonia!!!!

Also. NEVER NEVER use (dump) the same water that your fish came from. I have been to many local fish stores that dump SCORES of dead fish daily in the morning. Net your new arrivals and place them in your tank that way (of course after you have acclimated them)

Answer 2

Did you cycle before adding the fish? The biggest problem with what you did was adding all those fish at once. That would have caused a massive ammonia spike, which sadly results in dead fish. A good rule for community fish is not to add more than 3 per week, hardy ones first. If you didn't do the 6 week fishless cycle, do so now, then start to stock again lightly, no more than 3 fish per week. Don't overstock! Good luck. :)

Answer 3

that could be new tank syndrome, too much ammonia and nitrites, or it could be that you dont have enough algae in your tank to support him, and you should be feeding algae tabs to him as a supplement to what algae you have in your tank. I have a s. american tank w/many fancy plecos and I have never, ever lost a pleco. I feed my plecos at night after the lights go out, and you can sometimes see them swimming around sucking on the algae tab!! I think it's good to supplement their diet, because you can never really tell if they are getting enough to eat otherwise. Be aware that a common pleco can get 18-24 inches, so if you have smaller than a 125 gallon, go with a smaller fancy pleco, like a rubber lip or chocolate pleco.

Answer 4

Get your water checked. Better yet, invest in some test kits and keep track on your own. Be sure to follow some basic rules:

-10% water change each week
-25% water change every four weeks
-Treat water only as needed. Buffer and treat pH as necessary.
-Declorinate water.
-Know what's coming out of the faucet.
-Get fish that are suitable to your local water conditions.
-Get fish from a reputable source.
-Ease fish into your tank. Find out what the titration method is.

If your fish died within hours, a couple things are probably happening. The quality of water it's coming from differs greatly from the quality of water it's going into, and it's probably weak and sickly to begin with.

Make sure your tank is habitable in the first place, and steady. That's the benifit of having your own test kits. After that, get your fish from a good source.

Answer 5

When bringing home a new fish from the store, please don't put him into the tank with all the other fish. He needs to go into a quarantine tank for at least 14 days. There you can observe him more closely and see how he feeds, if he has ick, how the fins are looking....
Don't forget weekly water changes of 25%
Don't forget to use Chlorine removing drops or your fish will die.

Answer 6

yeah. id get your water checked out. pet stores will do it for free if you bring in about a cup of the water. are you chaning 1/4 of it per week? how many fish do you have? how many gallons is there in the tank?

Answer 7

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